In January 2024, a group of Platteville students traveled to Adumasa, Ghana to start phase 1 of the FTS Sister School. One of the students is keeping a journal to share what is going on during the trip, which can be found below along with photos from the trip.
Phase One: January 2024
Day One
The travel team has been hard at work during the first few days in the country. First, we landed in Accra and spent a day and a half exploring the city and adjusting to the atmosphere in Ghana. After a short stay, we thanked Dr. Sam’s family for graciously allowing us to stay at his home and provide food, water, rooms, and internet for us to begin planning the rest of our trip. We set off the morning of January 2nd for Adumasa, where the site of the project is, and our home for the next three weeks.
Day Two
On our first day in Adumasa, the travel team met with Sister Veronica, the head nun at the existing school, and they discussed our first steps in beginning the project. We also explored the site a bit to refresh our memories and confirm what we thought to be true from pictures, graphs, and data. Some clearing and grading was done during our first day in Accra, so we also spoke with contractors, commended their excellent work, and advised them on how to continue so we could begin marking the building’s location.
Day Three
On January 3rd, the travel team split into two groups for most of the day: one group was helping contractors determine where to continue grading and where to make room for the driveway close to the road at the bottom of the school. Another group of students were surveying the newly graded land and creating new data to see how our grading operations were proceeding. We also discussed how the school was changing with the sisters, and they helped fuel our work with fresh mangoes, roasted plantains, and lots of water. We marked the building corners and the priest completed a ceremony to bless the corners of the school for both the local workers and ourselves, not to mention the teachers and students that can use the building for years to come.
Day Four
The third day of construction featured mostly two things: surveying and trench digging. I participated in both by the end of the day, but I started the day with Logan and Wesley surveying while Dash (and later David) dug trenches with the laborers for the first half of the day. The surveying team used our previous control to continue shooting the driveway and new entrance to the school to ensure we had enough room and proper grade to allow passage of a bus.
Just as we set out, Sr. Veronica proved that her car could make it up the driveway (before it was graded, leveled, or extended to the road) by roaring up the driveway unannounced and shocking the entire team. “I had to make sure you were doing good work. It appears to work just fine!” She told us while giggling at David’s bewilderment that her Rav-4 crossed a foot-wide gap at the bottom of the driveway without problem.
After the driveway was shot, we took a long break to enjoy some mango and fruit salad before doing some trench digging. Dash showed us the results of his hard work early in the morning: his knuckles were already blistered and the blistered already peeled off and it was barely noon. He told us after working so hard (without gloves, for some reason) he could barely move his hands and could not raise his right arm at all or his left arm over his head. We laughed a little bit, but also expressed to Dash that he was not helpful to us or the sisters if he was hospitalized, and the sisters made him promise to stop digging until he was well again.
With that noted, the rest of the team tried their hand at some trenching after lunch. The ground was extremely hard, and progress was limited with hand tools. After a few hours, the team was extremely grateful for the excavator arriving the next day so we would not all suffer a fate similar to Dash’s.
To finish the day, the team was treated to fresh coconuts from the sisters. Moses made a show of opening the coconuts with a machete (nearly losing a couple fingers on one of them) and demonstrating how to eat fresh coconut. This one was 50/50 for many of the travel team members. Everybody liked the water more or less, but the undried flesh was not well received by most (although I loved it!).
After the day was finished, the team headed back to the hotel and worked out a few issues that were coming about. Our wifi block had stopped charging and data reception was generally pretty poor, so we were worried about being able to communicate effectively with some invaluable EWB members at home who could help us manage cost and survey data. We also were working through our project budget and ensuring that changes in labor and equipment would still fall under the budget initially set for the project (and granted to us by EWB-USA) so as much work could be completed as possible.
Day Five
The excavator was delayed still, today. Sr. Veronica told us that she would do everything in her power to ensure it is on site tomorrow. The operator continually told us he would arrive soon (after initially claiming he would arrive by 9 in the morning), but he never showed. Sr. Emily also arrived today and would stick around to look on our mining operation and show us some things related to the school like a calendar with pictures of the sisters and the children and she told many stories about the history of the area and the convent.
There were also steel benders on site helping build rebar for the foundation footings and columns. The contractors are very generous and share food with all the EWB members willing to help dig instead of watching from the shade.
Lastly, Dash and myself interviewed Sr. Veronica about the state of the school currently. She gave us lots of insight into how the school operates, how many kids and teachers use the school, and the problems and challenges they face regularly. This will hopefully help us address potential future projects and help them to maintain the quality education they seek to provide to the children of their region.
Day Six
Today was much less tiring than previous days. The excavator was on site, as promised, and the operator immediately showed how ineffective our manual digging was. Sr. Veronica was there for the morning, but she left shortly into the day to travel to Kumasi to celebrate her sister’s birthday.
Because there wasn’t much to do, the team was more or less useless and pretty much only supervisory. It rained for the first time since we arrived today, which was exciting to see. In total, the operator dug up to 4/6 trenches and we should be able to finish tomorrow without too many issues and begin pouring footings next week.
Day Seven
Today was a pretty simple workday. The team continued setting up column bases for the foundation of the school. Most work consisted of helping mix concrete and moving concrete down to the masons. We also helped the contractors install a temporary water storage tank next to the school for easy access for mixing, washing hands, cleaning and (in a pinch) drinking water for workers.
Early in the day, the travel team met with a local church leader in Adumasa. It was intended for us to greet him and the local chief before beginning work, but due to schedule conflicts, we met today. He also stopped by later in the day to look around the site and see the great work we are doing. We stopped by the chief’s residence in Adumasa as well, but he was not around, so we received the go-ahead to continue working and explore Adumasa at a later date
The kids are proving to be a handful for many travel team members- they are now comfortable enough with us to ask for candy, and in some cases, mob certain travel team members when they make it clear their pockets are full of candy. In any case, we are glad to keep the next generation of students energized in any way we can.
Day Eight
The only sitework that needed to be completed before placing concrete was placing pegs and straightening the sides of the trenches before concrete could be placed. The contractors worked on that while the design team re-counted and began planning for the changes in materials and cross-section associated with the new footing. New quantities of steel, concrete, and tools would be necessary to stay on schedule. Additionally, the contractor also requested a larger mixer and a few more laborers to stay on track, both of which we agreed to.
Sr. Veronica and many of the school staff returned today for a sort of “in-service” before the new term began. They opened up all the rooms in the school building and began sweeping and organizing classrooms before the children’s return tomorrow. We met with more of the teaching staff, introduced ourselves, and showed a few of them around the site. David, Zeke, and Dylan also worked with Sr. Veronica on balancing the project budget and consolidating our cost estimates with her receipts.
Before the team left, they attempted to plan for the busy coming days by laying out access routes for concrete wheelbarrows and helping the crew finish leveling the last sections of trench.
Day Nine
Today was one of the biggest days in terms of a progress-check for our construction schedule. Placing concrete for the buildings and laying foundation block are two of the hardest-to-predict pieces of our schedule, and we would hopefully get an idea of the amount of work we can complete in this trip by the end of the week. The team arrived bright and early via the school bus (our driver, Joel, is fixing his vehicle in Accra for a few days) and helped the crew set up a mixing station and finish up paths for wheelbarrows to haul concrete.
Just as we began setting out, the school children made their presences known by saying their morning prayers and lining up in front of the school. Some children looked as young as 2 or 3 (yes, seriously, 2. She was definitely below my waist and probably a bit taller than my knee.) and as old as 12 or 13 in the school’s ranks. Some children were very wary of our presence while others giggled and waved while hiding in hallways and classrooms. They all warmed up to us after introducing them to American candy, however.
Sr. Veronica also made it clear that she asked anyone willing to assist in construction to come to the site today, and the turnout shocked the team. There were dozens of volunteers who turned out to help in any way that they could. Women carried water to our mixing station (one mother even had a child harnessed to her back, fast asleep the whole day), some carried bags of concrete to our mixer, and others helped herd children away from dangerous areas and assisted teachers with school operations. It was exciting to see how much the community cares about this project and their willingness to help us work on this school.
Early into the concrete placing step, the team discovered there was a big miscommunication about footing reinforcement. The common tactics for placing steel into footings in Ghanaian construction did not align with our practices, and their method would not work for the placement of reinforcement our design required. Logan, Wesley, Zeke, and David scrambled together with the steel bender to assemble some pieces that were not yet made and frantically placed it in the concrete before it could set-up too much. Part of the group split off to measure each trench and determine which reinforcements needed to be made first while the other group worked with the steel bender to assemble them. By the end of the day, the first building had footings placed and the other building had not yet been started.
After a long day of mixing & hauling concrete, assembling reinforcement, and meeting with school children, the team finished up one building’s footings a little later than anticipated around 5:00 pm. A storm was rolling in and the team would need to exit (via the school bus, again, which was very fun) before getting poured on. The team also questioned just how dry the dry season could possibly be if rain fell for a third time after just 8 days on site. By some miracle, no rain fell on our setting concrete at site despite being rocked so hard at the hotel that we briefly lost water and electricity. The nuns were less baffled and ensured us that God wants this school to be built more than we do, and he would never interfere with such important processes. It was a refreshing way to view the circumstances.
Day Ten
Today was both exhausting and rewarding for the travel team. We spent most of the day preparing and placing concrete for footings in the second building, but we did not finish as anticipated. The increased distance and a few project-related hiccups meant we only finished about 75% of the footing and would need to continue tomorrow morning. Many pieces of reinforcement needed to be resized and adjusted to fit into the blueprints, and hauling the concrete further on each trip added precious time to the placing process. Most of the travel team was helping mix concrete while some made reinforcement or scoped out the work in progress.
The kids are slowly warming up to our group, too! During recess, Wesley, Dash, and Zeke headed to the soccer field to play games with many of the students (their selfies are wonderful, and featured below!). Additionally, the students also helped the project move along in a time of need. The circuit board to the pumped water supply for the school building stopped working this morning, and a maintenance technician had to go find a new board and install it while we made do with the only water we had available. The problem was this water was located in the high school’s land: about a 5 minute walk from our cement mixer. With the help of the high school truck, several buckets, and a class of eager students, the drums were refilled and the placing continued. Don’t worry, parents at home, the children were paid handily with sweets and were more than willing to haul pails of water for lifesavers and starbursts.
The team also got the privilege of meeting some community members who offered to wash our clothes while we were on site today. They did an excellent job, and they were wonderful to chat with and meet. The culmination of students, parents, volunteers, workers, and the team was excellent to see and the progress on the building is evidence of this partnership.
Lastly, to finish off the day, the team traveled to Sr. Veronica’s home and she prepared dinner for us as a way of saying thanks for the hard work committed so far. I feel that I speak for everyone when I say that this food was beyond my wildest expectations, and Veronica should feel safe knowing she has a job lined up as a cook if she ever decides that running the school is too much. The team sampled fresh chicken, jollof rice, boiled yams and yam-balls, fried plantains, and many other foods prepared by the sisters. We are grateful as a group for her involvement on site, outside of work hours, and to the kids and community we are working in.
Day Eleven
Today was a very unique day at the site. It is Zeke’s birthday today, and the sisters made a special surprise to celebrate his 22nd. There was a big lunch gathering shared by the travel team, teachers, and workers including yam-balls, beef, pork, fresh fruit, and rice. There was also a large gathering of students that wished him a happy birthday in song during the lunch break. Zeke was very pleased to hear and see all the people that coordinated his unforgettable birthday celebration.
In terms of site work, foundation block is being placed at a steady rate. We are unsure at this team whether or not we will be able to complete all the work set out in the initial plan, but we are doing everything possible to complete as much of the foundation as possible. Some members helped mason’s place block while others helped mix mortar or backfill trenches. Zeke also got a surprise while mixing concrete on his birthday. A small black cobra was chilling in the sand pile that he was shoveling and made an appearance to wish him a happy birthday. Nobody was injured (except for the cobra, who is now super dead. Rest in peace) but the unwanted visitor encouraged some workers to put on shoes when working near the sand pit.
Day Twelve
Today was a short day, so there will be a pretty short blog entry. We completed a lot of foundation block laying today, which consisted of much of the same activities: mixing mortar, placing block, and assisting masons. The kids were not at school today, which made the time drag on especially slowly. We are making excellent progress on the foundation wall, but it is clear that we will not complete the initial extent of work laid out by the initial schedule. We will hopefully have an update in coming days on our prediction for how much we can complete, but the contractors in Ghana will certainly need to continue without us to complete our initial goal.
Day Thirteen
Today was our first non-work day, and we wasted no time exploring Kumasi with the whole travel team and a few friends. Among the friends are Eric, son of our foreman Toku, and Ella, an assistant teacher at the school. They would help the team navigate unfamiliar surroundings and help barter and negotiate for better prices on street food, art, and other attractions.
The team explored KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology) first, one of the foremost engineering schools in the region. They found an airplane, lots of engineering buildings, and appreciated the building style and layout of the campus. Unfortunately, much was closed on Sundays, but the team still appreciated the beauty of campus. Next was the palace: a historical site that helped the travel team enrich their knowledge of Ghanaian history and leaders. The team also explored the cultural center and found some amazing hand-made artwork including paintings, jewelry, and pottery. Lastly, the team stopped by a local mall to get some food to eat, play pool, and do some shopping (and try Ghanaian chocolate!). After a long day of exploring, the team headed back to the hotel and prepared for the (final) long week of work ahead of them.
Day Fourteen
The team worked quickly to finish up the north building’s foundation block (the first of the two) and used our pace to estimate the scope of work we could complete on this trip. Our new goal is to complete both sets of foundation walls and columns, but leave the floor slab pour up to the contractors. We will do our best to complete as much work as possible, but this new projection seems more realistic and we have full faith in the contractors to complete the work while we are absent.
It is important for us to establish trust and a working relationship with the local contractors, and not pouring a floor slab is both a safety risk and allows water to damage our work during the wet season. We will verify the contractors are doing safe and acceptable work, but we will likely be back at school or work while the job is being performed. It is exciting to see the work begin to look like a building, but it is also a bit disappointing to not finish our initial scope of work. Nevertheless, we will continue doing everything in our power to have a working foundation completed by the end of this week.
Day Fifteen
Our initial goal still seems reasonable, given the pace of work recently. The second foundation wall is moving up nicely, and the columns for the north building were all poured today. Lastly is the grading and preparation for a floor slab which will be completed in our last two work days, but those should be easy tasks for the most part. Our final focus is completing the foundation wall for the second building and doing as much site preparation as possible. This is both to make the area safer for exploring students and also to help mitigate any problems for the contractors who need to complete work while we are gone.
We have two more full work days after today, and our new goal is looking very plausible. We hope to have some excellent site-development before and after pictures up that demonstrate the loads and loads of hard work that our team has devoted to the community and children of this region.
-Zeke Fredricks, travel team member
Day One
The travel team has been hard at work during the first few days in the country. First, we landed in Accra and spent a day and a half exploring the city and adjusting to the atmosphere in Ghana. After a short stay, we thanked Dr. Sam’s family for graciously allowing us to stay at his home and provide food, water, rooms, and internet for us to begin planning the rest of our trip. We set off the morning of January 2nd for Adumasa, where the site of the project is, and our home for the next three weeks.
Day Two
On our first day in Adumasa, the travel team met with Sister Veronica, the head nun at the existing school, and they discussed our first steps in beginning the project. We also explored the site a bit to refresh our memories and confirm what we thought to be true from pictures, graphs, and data. Some clearing and grading was done during our first day in Accra, so we also spoke with contractors, commended their excellent work, and advised them on how to continue so we could begin marking the building’s location.
Day Three
On January 3rd, the travel team split into two groups for most of the day: one group was helping contractors determine where to continue grading and where to make room for the driveway close to the road at the bottom of the school. Another group of students were surveying the newly graded land and creating new data to see how our grading operations were proceeding. We also discussed how the school was changing with the sisters, and they helped fuel our work with fresh mangoes, roasted plantains, and lots of water. We marked the building corners and the priest completed a ceremony to bless the corners of the school for both the local workers and ourselves, not to mention the teachers and students that can use the building for years to come.
Day Four
The third day of construction featured mostly two things: surveying and trench digging. I participated in both by the end of the day, but I started the day with Logan and Wesley surveying while Dash (and later David) dug trenches with the laborers for the first half of the day. The surveying team used our previous control to continue shooting the driveway and new entrance to the school to ensure we had enough room and proper grade to allow passage of a bus.
Just as we set out, Sr. Veronica proved that her car could make it up the driveway (before it was graded, leveled, or extended to the road) by roaring up the driveway unannounced and shocking the entire team. “I had to make sure you were doing good work. It appears to work just fine!” She told us while giggling at David’s bewilderment that her Rav-4 crossed a foot-wide gap at the bottom of the driveway without problem.
After the driveway was shot, we took a long break to enjoy some mango and fruit salad before doing some trench digging. Dash showed us the results of his hard work early in the morning: his knuckles were already blistered and the blistered already peeled off and it was barely noon. He told us after working so hard (without gloves, for some reason) he could barely move his hands and could not raise his right arm at all or his left arm over his head. We laughed a little bit, but also expressed to Dash that he was not helpful to us or the sisters if he was hospitalized, and the sisters made him promise to stop digging until he was well again.
With that noted, the rest of the team tried their hand at some trenching after lunch. The ground was extremely hard, and progress was limited with hand tools. After a few hours, the team was extremely grateful for the excavator arriving the next day so we would not all suffer a fate similar to Dash’s.
To finish the day, the team was treated to fresh coconuts from the sisters. Moses made a show of opening the coconuts with a machete (nearly losing a couple fingers on one of them) and demonstrating how to eat fresh coconut. This one was 50/50 for many of the travel team members. Everybody liked the water more or less, but the undried flesh was not well received by most (although I loved it!).
After the day was finished, the team headed back to the hotel and worked out a few issues that were coming about. Our wifi block had stopped charging and data reception was generally pretty poor, so we were worried about being able to communicate effectively with some invaluable EWB members at home who could help us manage cost and survey data. We also were working through our project budget and ensuring that changes in labor and equipment would still fall under the budget initially set for the project (and granted to us by EWB-USA) so as much work could be completed as possible.
Day Five
The excavator was delayed still, today. Sr. Veronica told us that she would do everything in her power to ensure it is on site tomorrow. The operator continually told us he would arrive soon (after initially claiming he would arrive by 9 in the morning), but he never showed. Sr. Emily also arrived today and would stick around to look on our mining operation and show us some things related to the school like a calendar with pictures of the sisters and the children and she told many stories about the history of the area and the convent.
There were also steel benders on site helping build rebar for the foundation footings and columns. The contractors are very generous and share food with all the EWB members willing to help dig instead of watching from the shade.
Lastly, Dash and myself interviewed Sr. Veronica about the state of the school currently. She gave us lots of insight into how the school operates, how many kids and teachers use the school, and the problems and challenges they face regularly. This will hopefully help us address potential future projects and help them to maintain the quality education they seek to provide to the children of their region.
Day Six
Today was much less tiring than previous days. The excavator was on site, as promised, and the operator immediately showed how ineffective our manual digging was. Sr. Veronica was there for the morning, but she left shortly into the day to travel to Kumasi to celebrate her sister’s birthday.
Because there wasn’t much to do, the team was more or less useless and pretty much only supervisory. It rained for the first time since we arrived today, which was exciting to see. In total, the operator dug up to 4/6 trenches and we should be able to finish tomorrow without too many issues and begin pouring footings next week.
Day Seven
Today was a pretty simple workday. The team continued setting up column bases for the foundation of the school. Most work consisted of helping mix concrete and moving concrete down to the masons. We also helped the contractors install a temporary water storage tank next to the school for easy access for mixing, washing hands, cleaning and (in a pinch) drinking water for workers.
Early in the day, the travel team met with a local church leader in Adumasa. It was intended for us to greet him and the local chief before beginning work, but due to schedule conflicts, we met today. He also stopped by later in the day to look around the site and see the great work we are doing. We stopped by the chief’s residence in Adumasa as well, but he was not around, so we received the go-ahead to continue working and explore Adumasa at a later date
The kids are proving to be a handful for many travel team members- they are now comfortable enough with us to ask for candy, and in some cases, mob certain travel team members when they make it clear their pockets are full of candy. In any case, we are glad to keep the next generation of students energized in any way we can.
Day Eight
The only sitework that needed to be completed before placing concrete was placing pegs and straightening the sides of the trenches before concrete could be placed. The contractors worked on that while the design team re-counted and began planning for the changes in materials and cross-section associated with the new footing. New quantities of steel, concrete, and tools would be necessary to stay on schedule. Additionally, the contractor also requested a larger mixer and a few more laborers to stay on track, both of which we agreed to.
Sr. Veronica and many of the school staff returned today for a sort of “in-service” before the new term began. They opened up all the rooms in the school building and began sweeping and organizing classrooms before the children’s return tomorrow. We met with more of the teaching staff, introduced ourselves, and showed a few of them around the site. David, Zeke, and Dylan also worked with Sr. Veronica on balancing the project budget and consolidating our cost estimates with her receipts.
Before the team left, they attempted to plan for the busy coming days by laying out access routes for concrete wheelbarrows and helping the crew finish leveling the last sections of trench.
Day Nine
Today was one of the biggest days in terms of a progress-check for our construction schedule. Placing concrete for the buildings and laying foundation block are two of the hardest-to-predict pieces of our schedule, and we would hopefully get an idea of the amount of work we can complete in this trip by the end of the week. The team arrived bright and early via the school bus (our driver, Joel, is fixing his vehicle in Accra for a few days) and helped the crew set up a mixing station and finish up paths for wheelbarrows to haul concrete.
Just as we began setting out, the school children made their presences known by saying their morning prayers and lining up in front of the school. Some children looked as young as 2 or 3 (yes, seriously, 2. She was definitely below my waist and probably a bit taller than my knee.) and as old as 12 or 13 in the school’s ranks. Some children were very wary of our presence while others giggled and waved while hiding in hallways and classrooms. They all warmed up to us after introducing them to American candy, however.
Sr. Veronica also made it clear that she asked anyone willing to assist in construction to come to the site today, and the turnout shocked the team. There were dozens of volunteers who turned out to help in any way that they could. Women carried water to our mixing station (one mother even had a child harnessed to her back, fast asleep the whole day), some carried bags of concrete to our mixer, and others helped herd children away from dangerous areas and assisted teachers with school operations. It was exciting to see how much the community cares about this project and their willingness to help us work on this school.
Early into the concrete placing step, the team discovered there was a big miscommunication about footing reinforcement. The common tactics for placing steel into footings in Ghanaian construction did not align with our practices, and their method would not work for the placement of reinforcement our design required. Logan, Wesley, Zeke, and David scrambled together with the steel bender to assemble some pieces that were not yet made and frantically placed it in the concrete before it could set-up too much. Part of the group split off to measure each trench and determine which reinforcements needed to be made first while the other group worked with the steel bender to assemble them. By the end of the day, the first building had footings placed and the other building had not yet been started.
After a long day of mixing & hauling concrete, assembling reinforcement, and meeting with school children, the team finished up one building’s footings a little later than anticipated around 5:00 pm. A storm was rolling in and the team would need to exit (via the school bus, again, which was very fun) before getting poured on. The team also questioned just how dry the dry season could possibly be if rain fell for a third time after just 8 days on site. By some miracle, no rain fell on our setting concrete at site despite being rocked so hard at the hotel that we briefly lost water and electricity. The nuns were less baffled and ensured us that God wants this school to be built more than we do, and he would never interfere with such important processes. It was a refreshing way to view the circumstances.
Day Ten
Today was both exhausting and rewarding for the travel team. We spent most of the day preparing and placing concrete for footings in the second building, but we did not finish as anticipated. The increased distance and a few project-related hiccups meant we only finished about 75% of the footing and would need to continue tomorrow morning. Many pieces of reinforcement needed to be resized and adjusted to fit into the blueprints, and hauling the concrete further on each trip added precious time to the placing process. Most of the travel team was helping mix concrete while some made reinforcement or scoped out the work in progress.
The kids are slowly warming up to our group, too! During recess, Wesley, Dash, and Zeke headed to the soccer field to play games with many of the students (their selfies are wonderful, and featured below!). Additionally, the students also helped the project move along in a time of need. The circuit board to the pumped water supply for the school building stopped working this morning, and a maintenance technician had to go find a new board and install it while we made do with the only water we had available. The problem was this water was located in the high school’s land: about a 5 minute walk from our cement mixer. With the help of the high school truck, several buckets, and a class of eager students, the drums were refilled and the placing continued. Don’t worry, parents at home, the children were paid handily with sweets and were more than willing to haul pails of water for lifesavers and starbursts.
The team also got the privilege of meeting some community members who offered to wash our clothes while we were on site today. They did an excellent job, and they were wonderful to chat with and meet. The culmination of students, parents, volunteers, workers, and the team was excellent to see and the progress on the building is evidence of this partnership.
Lastly, to finish off the day, the team traveled to Sr. Veronica’s home and she prepared dinner for us as a way of saying thanks for the hard work committed so far. I feel that I speak for everyone when I say that this food was beyond my wildest expectations, and Veronica should feel safe knowing she has a job lined up as a cook if she ever decides that running the school is too much. The team sampled fresh chicken, jollof rice, boiled yams and yam-balls, fried plantains, and many other foods prepared by the sisters. We are grateful as a group for her involvement on site, outside of work hours, and to the kids and community we are working in.
Day Eleven
Today was a very unique day at the site. It is Zeke’s birthday today, and the sisters made a special surprise to celebrate his 22nd. There was a big lunch gathering shared by the travel team, teachers, and workers including yam-balls, beef, pork, fresh fruit, and rice. There was also a large gathering of students that wished him a happy birthday in song during the lunch break. Zeke was very pleased to hear and see all the people that coordinated his unforgettable birthday celebration.
In terms of site work, foundation block is being placed at a steady rate. We are unsure at this team whether or not we will be able to complete all the work set out in the initial plan, but we are doing everything possible to complete as much of the foundation as possible. Some members helped mason’s place block while others helped mix mortar or backfill trenches. Zeke also got a surprise while mixing concrete on his birthday. A small black cobra was chilling in the sand pile that he was shoveling and made an appearance to wish him a happy birthday. Nobody was injured (except for the cobra, who is now super dead. Rest in peace) but the unwanted visitor encouraged some workers to put on shoes when working near the sand pit.
Day Twelve
Today was a short day, so there will be a pretty short blog entry. We completed a lot of foundation block laying today, which consisted of much of the same activities: mixing mortar, placing block, and assisting masons. The kids were not at school today, which made the time drag on especially slowly. We are making excellent progress on the foundation wall, but it is clear that we will not complete the initial extent of work laid out by the initial schedule. We will hopefully have an update in coming days on our prediction for how much we can complete, but the contractors in Ghana will certainly need to continue without us to complete our initial goal.
Day Thirteen
Today was our first non-work day, and we wasted no time exploring Kumasi with the whole travel team and a few friends. Among the friends are Eric, son of our foreman Toku, and Ella, an assistant teacher at the school. They would help the team navigate unfamiliar surroundings and help barter and negotiate for better prices on street food, art, and other attractions.
The team explored KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology) first, one of the foremost engineering schools in the region. They found an airplane, lots of engineering buildings, and appreciated the building style and layout of the campus. Unfortunately, much was closed on Sundays, but the team still appreciated the beauty of campus. Next was the palace: a historical site that helped the travel team enrich their knowledge of Ghanaian history and leaders. The team also explored the cultural center and found some amazing hand-made artwork including paintings, jewelry, and pottery. Lastly, the team stopped by a local mall to get some food to eat, play pool, and do some shopping (and try Ghanaian chocolate!). After a long day of exploring, the team headed back to the hotel and prepared for the (final) long week of work ahead of them.
Day Fourteen
The team worked quickly to finish up the north building’s foundation block (the first of the two) and used our pace to estimate the scope of work we could complete on this trip. Our new goal is to complete both sets of foundation walls and columns, but leave the floor slab pour up to the contractors. We will do our best to complete as much work as possible, but this new projection seems more realistic and we have full faith in the contractors to complete the work while we are absent.
It is important for us to establish trust and a working relationship with the local contractors, and not pouring a floor slab is both a safety risk and allows water to damage our work during the wet season. We will verify the contractors are doing safe and acceptable work, but we will likely be back at school or work while the job is being performed. It is exciting to see the work begin to look like a building, but it is also a bit disappointing to not finish our initial scope of work. Nevertheless, we will continue doing everything in our power to have a working foundation completed by the end of this week.
Day Fifteen
Our initial goal still seems reasonable, given the pace of work recently. The second foundation wall is moving up nicely, and the columns for the north building were all poured today. Lastly is the grading and preparation for a floor slab which will be completed in our last two work days, but those should be easy tasks for the most part. Our final focus is completing the foundation wall for the second building and doing as much site preparation as possible. This is both to make the area safer for exploring students and also to help mitigate any problems for the contractors who need to complete work while we are gone.
We have two more full work days after today, and our new goal is looking very plausible. We hope to have some excellent site-development before and after pictures up that demonstrate the loads and loads of hard work that our team has devoted to the community and children of this region.
-Zeke Fredricks, travel team member